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Gemstones & Pearls Category
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Eglantyne
Artist: Mara Marlow (Federal Way, WA)
Honorable Mention, Gemstones & Pearls
"This piece was inspired by looking at pictures of Miriam Haskell jewelry. She made a beautiful flower-shaped centerpiece with lentil pearl petals, rhinestones and seed-pearl covered leaves. I was determined to figure out how to get a similar look with available materials. The kabibi shell disks worked nicely with for the petals, which are sewn onto a copper filigree with SuppleMax™ rather than wired on, because I thought the nylon would be gentler to the fragile shells. The centers are a fringed circle of seed beads with a headpin through a Swarovski [CRYSTALLIZED™] bicone to anchor them onto the filigree.
"The brass leaf charms all face the same way, so I just twisted some of the leaves around to make mirror images. I painted them with topaz Color Magic™ so they would match the copper better, wire-wrapped the seed beads on with 28-gauge copper wire and, finally, coated the back with two-part epoxy to make sure the wires didn't slide off. Using the handy dapping block, I shaped more filigrees to contain all the wires and strings inside, sewed them together with SuppleMax, then connected them with heavy oval jump rings. The mother of pearl bead strands are attached with copper Beadalon®. The process took several days off and on---I let it sit to see if the balance was right, if it hung nicely, if it needed more (or less) dangles, etc. ...
"I named it Eglantyne because the flowers remind me of wild roses." -- Mara Marlow
View more 2009 Honorable Mention winners. Or, check for details about our most recent contest!
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